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The Big Sleep (1978)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 9/20

BigSleep78
9/20: The 1978 version of The Big Sleep is the worst Philip Marlowe movie made.

Robert Mitchum looks way off after giving a perfect hard-boiled performance in Farewell, My Lovely. Forget Oliver Reed and James Stewart; they're no good, either. What the heck happened? Michael Winner is to blame by failing to understand the meaning of neo-noir.

Instead of Los Angeles where it always takes place in all Philip Marlowe stories, this one is set in London. I have no idea how this is supposed to help the required ambience. It was all correctly done in Farewell, My Lovely.

The next mistake is the dialogue which is sheer awful and not Chandler-esque the least bit. What's with the stupid window lettering: "Philip Marlowe - Commercial and Civil Investigations"? Another weird part is the voice-over bit that suddenly appears at the hour mark when it should be natural to hear Marlowe's thoughts throughout. The lines during the final five minutes finally sounded better, but it's just too late.

Candy Clark is an acting tragedy. She gets my vote for the worst performance of the 70's. Her character is a certified mental retard. Martha Vickers played her better in the Howard Hawks' production. As Camilla's older sister, Sarah Miles is ugly as hell and has been drinking her own urine for over thirty years in real life (go ahead...look it up if you don't believe me). Robert Mitchum must have been so drunk to let himself be kissed by them.

Michael Winner made a lot of changes to Hawks' version, and they're all terrible. I prefer the confusing plot in the other film because it's well-paced. Because of the uninspired performances, I couldn't wait for the 1978 film to end not long after I started playing it. Who cares about the pornography angle? It wasn't a big deal during the late 70's as compared to the 40's.

All in all, if Robert Mitchum can't or won't be the vintage Philip Marlowe, what's the point of remaking The Big Sleep?